A not-so-surprising and rather cozy graph has outlined a positive correlation between individuals turning to digital health marketplace ZocDoc to book cold and flu appointments and the amount of soup orders fielded by food-delivery middleman GrubHub.
For both 2014 and 2015, ZocDoc's largest upticks in bookings for cold and flu appointments were at least 15 percent higher compared to other weeks during the same periods when GrubHub experienced an average 22 percent increase in soup orders. The data suggest soups like chicken noodle and chicken rice, which experienced average order increases of 30.6 percent and 41.8 percent during busy-cold appointments week, respectively, are more comforting for sick individuals than other soups.
Additionally, during weeks when cold and flu appointments and soup orders both spiked, GrubHub's delivery instructions were 283 percent more likely to include mention of a sore throat or being sick. Slurp away, you're in good company.